Room to Breathe
by thespeedforce4
Summary: It all comes down to the one you look for in a crowded room (more info in bio)


This drabble is inspired by a story I started way back in the day called _She Can Get It_. **You don't need to have read SCGI to understand that this is a college AU**. I wrote this thing in response to the continuous reviews/messages I get in regards to that story. This is just here because I miss this story a bit. It is a rewrite of how I originally started the story. **Again, you don't need to have read SCGI**

AU information:

Artemis, Zatanna and Megan are in college together. There is no season one team. Arty is a freelance vigilante, Megan and Zatanna are in the League. Wally and Dick are on the Team with Kaldur and Conner. Artemis knows Dick and Tim's identity (and Zee and Megan's obviously) but she doesn't know anyone else's. Cassie is also on the Team with Tim and is pretty much oblivious to everyone's secret identities. And then Dick knows who everybody is and Wally knows about Artemis.

This drabble is just a snippet of a party, concerning two teenagers - one all too aware and one blissfully ignorant to the other

* * *

They say it all comes down to the person you look for in a crowded room but he didn't even know he was looking for her until he saw her and suddenly he couldn't see anyone else.

Tim was standing beside Dick by the bar, hastily filling plastic red solo cups with beer for boisterous and impatient college students when she walked in. His brothers often paid him to man the bar when they threw these parties - despite the fact that he was still in high school. They knew there was nothing to worry about - there was no way the straight arrow youngest ward of Bruce Wayne would do anything as detrimental to his health and mental capacity as drinking alcohol - especially since his brain isn't yet fully developed. Not that that ever stopped Jason and Dick.

Bruce Wayne was on an extended business trip - which was code for _Batman is on a mission for an unforeseeable amount of time off world_. It took Dick two weeks of begging and bargaining and convincing but mostly whining to get Alfred to agree to a party. The old man pulled a Pontius Pilate when he finally gave in to the constant nagging of Dick and Jason. He "washed his hands" of the situation so to say and locked himself in his quarters for the night. Although he told the boys he would take no responsibility of any damages or messes that would without a doubt be made that night they all knew that starting tomorrow morning Albert would likely have half of the manor already cleaned before the boys even woke up.

"The poor schmuck just can't help himself," Jason had proclaimed earlier that morning as he lugged the second keg into the manor, Dick close behind with the third.

Tim handed Babs her seventh beer in the last two hours, "I'm going to have to cut you off soon."

The ginger laughed, "you couldn't stop me if you tried," she squeezed his cheek with her free hand affectionately, like an estranged aunt does to her unwilling nephews after not seeing them for years.

It was as the ebony haired boy pulled away from her grasp did he see her. His vision zeroed in on her and suddenly the rest of the world went out of focus.

Her blonde hair was pulled in a messy high ponytail that was hazardly off-centered. She was wearing a black sleeveless dri-fit shirt, bright blue athletic shorts (always rolled up at the waist just once) and her favorite pair of black Nike tennis shoes. Her light mascara and work-out attire was a clear indication that she had no intention of staying for longer than absolutely necessary - which was odd considering the Amazon had a reputation for being a bit of a party girl when she wanted. Regardless, as far as Tim was concerned Cassandra Sandsmark was the most beautiful girl in the room overflowing with drunk, done-up college kids.

Babs followed his line of vision across the room and laughed. "She doesn't know who you are right now, _Robin_ ," she whispered his name with a wink. "If she sees you staring too long she'll probably kick your ass. _Amazons_." She motioned in a dramatic manner, turning back to the bar and discretely topping off her beer. Tim would have chastised her for using his hero alias in public but he was too distracted.

'Yeah. Amazons."

Robin - the genius detective apprentice to Batman - was stoic and put together. He was smart, observant and relatively quiet - minus the occasional sarcastic quip or piece of information from the ridiculous wealth of knowledge he had floating around his brain. _He_ was perfectly capable of holding himself together when Wonder Girl was around - on the outside. Robin was her friend, her teammate. But Tim? Tim was a hormonal 16 year-old high school junior who's pants got a little tighter _down there_ whenever he thought about Cassie Sandsmark and her well-defined legs for too long.

The mass of belligerent people that had invaded his home quickly began to overpower him and he found himself wishing for more room to breathe.

She hadn't seen him yet. Cassie stared down at her phone angrily. The music was too loud, the house was too crowded and the air was too hot. This was the last time she answered drunk phone calls from her friends she swore to herself. Although she knew it was useless to promise herself those sorts of things. She couldn't help but come to the rescue when a drunk teammate called her - no matter how late. Sometimes she didn't understand why they insisted on calling her. Most of the zeta tubes were relatively close to all of their homes. "Rookie Initiation" they had called it but she was sure it had less to do with "initiation" and more to do with not being able to walk in a straight line.

She tapped impatiently at her phone. The regular "ray of sunshine" personality she had was no match for her angrier and irritated side. She had gotten into a fight with Robin earlier that day during a mission and since then nothing seemed to be going right for her. Diana even cancelled patrol with her so the young blonde took her frustration out at the gym - that is until she got the drunk texts from M'gann.

 _Where are you?_ Cassie sent for seemingly the hundredth time. Someone bumped into her from behind, sending her phone flying forward and onto the marble floor.

"Watch it!" A girl spat at her before turning and giving all of her attention to the boy in front of her.

Cassie took a deep breath and mentally counted to five. If she didn't find Zatanna and M'gann soon she was going to have to hit something. She scanned the marble floor for her phone, looking helplessly through the feet of hot and bothered young adults as they rubbed themselves against each other and slammed their against the ground feet like elephants. Not that Cassie could really condemn them - if it wasn't for her responsibility of getting her teammates home safe she'd been known to let loose and it wouldn't be all too out of character for her to be playing a drinking game alongside them. In fact it wouldn't be out of character to be destroying everyone in said drinking game at all.

"Great," she sighed. Her phone lay a couple feet before her - face down. Never a good sign. "Please be okay - please be okay." She chanted as she knelt over to pick it up but someone beat her to it. He stood up, holding out her phone to her and shot her a winning smile.

"Dick Grayson," his baby blues caught Cassie but what really got her by surprise was the lopsided grin on his face. Something about it looked familiar.

"Thanks," she frowned taking her unscathed phone from his hand. She examined it for a moment - no new texts - before slipping it into the waistband of her shorts. "Have I - met you before?"

The man laughed - an eerily familiar sound, "you might have heard of my father. Bruce Wayne? Owner of this fine, humble abode."

Cassie nodded enthusiastically, gaining sudden energy she didn't know she had. " _The_ Bruce Wayne? Like, of Wayne Enterprises Bruce Wayne - wait." The blonde cut herself off. This was no time to fangirl, she had drunk friends to rescue. "This is your house then?"

"It would be," Dick motioned to the bar, "my younger brother is just over there-"

"That's great," she scanned the crowd, completely glazing over the bar. "I need to find my friends. They said they knew the owner but I didn't really make the connection that the owner would be Bruce _Wayne_?"

Dick licked his lips, "well I'm sure they do. But do I know them - that's the question."

Cassie rolled her eyes, that sudden burst of energy she had felt was quickly draining. She tended to be the 'light and airy' one but this girl was on a mission. This was no time to be distracted by tall, dark and strikingly handsome wards of billionaires. "Zatanna Zatara and Megan Morse?"

The ebony-haired boy pretended to think for a moment. "Oh yes! I'll take you right to them. First let's stop by the bar and I'll grab you a drink -"

"No, that's alright. Driving! Thanks!" Cassie tried to match his smile, "I've _really_ gotta find my friends." She couldn't let anything get in the way of her mission; she had had a hard enough time resisting the beer pong table she had passed on the way in.

Dick shrugged, "alright. Suit yourself." And with one last glance and shrug to the bar - to his brother she assumed - he led the blonde out of the room towards the back balcony where her friends were entertaining a group of drooling boys with their magic tricks.

Tim dropped his head onto the bar countertop with a thud.

"That's alright, little bird," Babs patted the boy's head, pushing his hair into awkward angles and out of the neat style he had perfected. His shorter, uniform hair was a drastic contrast to his elder brother's longer, messier - in Dick's case borderline shaggy - locks. "Maybe she'll come back?"

"That _dick_ scared her off," Tim mumbled into the wood. He glanced up and shook his head at her when her fingers pulled out of his hair roughly. "Ow, Babs," he glared but she wasn't paying attention to him.

She covered her mouth with her hands, "you called him _dick_ ," she said before erupting into a fit of giggles, banging her fist onto the countertop.

"That's it." Tim rolled his eyes and slid her drink away from her and out of her clumsy reach. "I'm cutting you off."

Cassie pulled Zatanna and M'gann through the Zeta Tubes in Gotham and into the Cave in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. After having to pry them away from those boys - and Zatanna from Dick - Cassie was ready to put them to bed. "You two," she huffed, linking arms with the girls, "have caused me -" she grabbed a giggling Zatanna by the arm and pulled her away from the kitchen. "- enough trouble for one night." The door to M'gann's room slid open and she lightly guided the girl into her room.

Zatanna followed behind, running into the walls while doing so. She insisted she "don' wanna sleep awone."

"I guess you can both sleep here tonight," Cassie sighed, helping both girls into the Martian's bed and tucking them under the fluffy pink comforter. She put her hands on her hips. Perfect. "Well my work here is done. If you need me, I'll be in my room. Tomorrow is Saturday so don't forget we have training first thing." Neither girl responded and Cassie smiled. They were both out, she was essentially talking to two sleeping brick walls. "Alright," she whispered, "Backing out of the room now. Goodnight." She flicked off the light and walked back down to the kitchen.

Cassie grabbed a yogurt from the refrigerator and sat at the counter. Zatanna had said they knew the owner of the house but the magician had never said the owner was _Dick Grayson_. Cassie took the lid off of the cup and licked the yogurt off the top. How in the world did Zatanna Zatara _from New York_ and M'gann M'orezz _from Mars_ meet the ward of billionaire, playboy, philanthropist Bruce Wayne?

 _To be continued… probably_

* * *

 _I started She Can Get It before I was even in college and now that I'm a year in my plans for the story seem stupid. I didn't know anything about college when I started it. I was a silly little dingus._

 _Anyways, if you like it and wanna read more of it, shoot me a review and I'll make it happen._

 _Natalie_


End file.
